The Littlest Pontmercy: Eight Years Later
by BrandonMichelle
Summary: Victoire Pontmercy turned into a lovely little girl, but her parents fears for her turned out to be real . This is a sequel to my fic The Littlest Pontmercy, which was a prequel to my fic The Pontmercys ... Yeah I've even confused myself now! Marius and Cosette don't feature so much in this one . Novel verse based fic . Reviews are nice to see . *By the way this is my 20th fic!*
1. Petit

**The Littlest Pontmercy: Eight Years later**

By the time Victoire Pontmercy was eight years old she had become a very beautiful little girl. She was very loving, very sensitive to other people feelings and so adorable, but unfortunately her parents fears were found to be true when it had become apparent that she was indeed feeble minded. She wasn't a complete imbecile mind you, but after she had reached the age of five her education had plateaued somewhat, she could barely write anything more than her own name and her reading ability had just stalled completely. Marius and Cosette wouldn't give up on her though, they were still trying to help her progress, they had hired tutors for her but little had changed in her education and they had also taken her to see many doctors already in her short life, they had all said the same thing though, that there was nothing physically wrong with her, it was just her mind that was slow.

You wouldn't have thought it to look at her, she was such a happy and carefree child and she was so affectionate to everybody she met**. **But she had such trouble understanding simple things sometimes that it took a lot of patience and love to deal with her.**  
**Her family loved her dearly, but her parents were incredibly overprotective of their youngest child and they seemed to shelter her from things more so than any of her siblings. They didn't want her to know she was different from other children, and they didn't ever want her to know that she was feeble.

One afternoon though little Victoire got a rude awakening from an unexpected source, it was a weekday and the children had finished their studies for the day and were now able to do as they pleased for the rest of the afternoon until their father came home, he wasn't expected for a few hours though.

Someone had upset Victoire that afternoon and she was hurrying to her bedroom that she shared with her sisters when she ran into her brother Jean who was coming out of his room.

"Ooops, Sorry Vic" he said as she bumped into him. He smiled at her, until he noticed she had tears in her eyes, then his face fell. He couldn't stand to see his little sister upset, or any of his siblings actually, but he had always had a special bond with his baby sister so he always felt like he had to do something if she was sad. Even though he was fifteen now, he still made time for his favourite sister when she needed him, he promised his father years ago that he would always look after her, and he wasn't going to back out of that promise, in fact sometimes he felt so strongly about her that he thought of her more like his daughter, not his sister.

"What's the matter petit?" he said to her when he saw her tears. That was his pet name for her, since she was so small.

"Nothing" she said sadly, looking at the floor.

"Something must be wrong Vic if you're crying" Jean said. "Come in here" he said taking her hand and leading her into his room. He sat her down on his bed and knelt down to be at her level. Jean was very tall for his age and little Victoire barely came up to his waist when she stood up; they certainly were an adorable pair to look at when they played together.

He wiped her eyes with his sleeve and tapped her playfully on the nose, something his mother had always done to her children that he liked to continue. "Tell me what's upset you petit" he said.

"Courfeyrac" she simply said

Jean tutted when she said that, Courfeyrac, his middle brother had a habit of teasing his sisters, he wasn't a malicious boy by any means but sometimes he could just go too far with his taunting and someone would usually end up in tears.

"Aw Vic" he said smiling slightly at her, "What's he done now?"

"I asked him to help me read because maman was busy, but he just laughed at me and said I was stupid" She told Jean, whose face now looked very serious.

"What?" he said lividly

"He said I was stupid, then he said I embarrassed the family because I was an imbecile, I asked him what that meant and then he just laughed at me again".

Jean now looked horrified at what Victoire just told him.

"Vic, did he really say that to you? You're not making it up?" He asked her, even though he already believed her, he just wanted to make sure she was absolutely certain.

"That's what he said, he said imbecile. What does it mean Jean?" She asked him

"How dare he say that to you" he said softly, avoiding her question. "Did you tell maman about this?" he asked her

Victoire shook her head at him, still confused about the word she didn't understand.

"Good" he said, and he stood up and reached out his hand to his little sister. "Come with me" he said as she took his hand "Where's Courfeyrac?"

"He was in the parlour reading". She told him.

Jean led his sister downstairs again and into the parlour where Courfeyrac was indeed reading, he looked annoyed at being disturbed again by his siblings.

"Go away Jean, I'm trying to read" he said to his elder brother

The two elder brothers of the Pontmercy family had always had quite a good relationship, since they were so close in age they had a lot of similar interests and when they were younger they used to playfight a lot, but right now Jean was about ready for a real fight with his brother.

Jean walked up to Courfeyrac and pulled the book out of his hand and threw it to the ground and dragged him out of his seat by his shirt.

"HEY…" he yelled, surprised at being manhandled by his brother

"Shut up!" Jean said angrily "You're going to apologise right now to Victoire for what you said to her".

"Get off me Jean" he yelled at his elder brother and managed to squirm out of his grasp

"You do not insult my sister Courfeyrac" Jean said lividly "You're going to apologise now or I'll make you sorry"

"You can't bully me Jean" Courfeyrac said, slightly arrogantly.

Jean looked his brother right in the eye and gave him one last chance to apologise, but Courfeyrac stood his ground and squared right up to his brother, not letting himself be intimidated.

Suddenly, Jean punched his brother in the face so hard that he fell to the floor, splitting his lip in the process.

Victoire screamed, she had never seen her brother hit anyone before, not like this anyway. He was on top of Courfeyrac now and had grabbed his shirt again and was screaming at him almost unintelligibly.

Cosette had heard the commotion and came running into the room her children were in, she was shocked to say the least at the sight of her boys fighting like this; she rushed to them and tried to pull Jean off his brother, which wasn't easy since Jean was nearly as tall as her already at fifteen.

"JEAN STOP!" she yelled, pulling at him "Stop it! Get away from him!" she screamed at him and finally managed to pull him away, Courfeyrac scrambled to his feet, terrified at what had just happened. Cosette saw his bloodied lip and his red eye that promised to turn into a full shiner the next morning and went to comfort him.

"Oh my poor boy" she said softly pulling out a handkerchief and pressing it against his lip "What's going on?" she said to both her boys, "Why did you hit him Jean? Tell me right now".

"Poor boy Maman? Poor boy is it?" Jean barked at her "Why don't you tell her what you said Courfeyrac? Then we'll see who's a poor boy". Jean tried to square up to his brother again but his mother put her whole body in between the two boys

"Jean, stop this right now!" She said sharply to him, and then turned to Courfeyrac again, taking his head into her hands, he had tears in his eyes and she couldn't help but want to comfort him.

"Why don't you tell her what you said Courfeyrac? Why don't you tell her how you think Victoires an imbecile, tell her how you think she's an embarrassment to our family!" Jean shouted at him, forgetting that Victoire was still in the room and was still watching the whole scene horrified at her brother.

Cosette gasped, she looked at Courfeyrac furiously, "No…" she said "Tell me you didn't say that about your sister? Tell me you didn't Courfeyrac" she said, holding back tears.

"I'm sorry Maman" Courfeyrac said through tears "Please….I'm sorry, I didn't mean it. Please maman.…don't hate me".

"Oh my boy…" she said, looking at his terrified face, whatever he had said about his sister it was just in her nature to want to comfort her son, she still saw him as her little boy even though he was thirteen. She took his head in her hands and just held him for a moment.

Jean was livid at this, "Maman, you heard what he said, how can you…."

Cosette stopped him from speaking and looked at him sharply, "Jean for god's sake, calm down. He's your brother and he's sorry".

"He's not my brother anymore, I hate him!" Jean screamed, "HE'S A BASTARD!" And at the sound of that word Cosette suddenly and sharply slapped Jean so hard across his face that he almost lost his footing.

She immediately regretted it though; she gasped and covered her mouth with her hands, shocked at herself for what she had just done. Jean was also shocked at her, she had never raised a hand to him before, his father had always been the disciplinarian in the house, but never her. He grabbed his burning cheek and looked at her in disbelief.

Everyone was silent for a moment, Jeans eyes had begun to water, as had his mothers. She reached out to him with her hands but he took a step back from her and looked at her hatefully.

"Oh Jean, I'm…" she began, but he didn't let her finish, he just turned and ran out of the room and flew up the stairs to his bedroom.  
He was so angry at Cosette, he had defended his baby sister and he was treated like this, his own mother had hit him. He flung himself onto his bed and began to cry.

Cosette decided to leave Jean alone for a while to let him calm down, she would apologise to him later. First she needed to deal with Courfeyrac.

She sat him down in the parlour, Victoire was still there, having witnessed the whole horrible scene and now feeling guilty that her brothers were in trouble because of her. She was such a gentle soul though that she had forgotten what Courfeyrac had said to her not one hour ago and was sitting next to him holding his hand as he kept his mothers handkerchief close to his still bleeding lip.

Courfeyrac looked at his sister and his heart melted, "I'm sorry Victoire" he said to her. "I didn't mean what I said to you I swear".

Victoire smiled at him beautifully and kissed him on the cheek, Cosette also smiled at this, but she needed to talk to Courfeyrac alone for a moment so she sent her out of the room.

"Victoire, go and find Leon please" Cosette said "He'll play with you I'm sure, he always does". Victoire nodded and left the room, leaving Cosette alone with her son.

Courfeyrac looked at his mother, then looked down at the floor feeling ashamed of himself and prepared himself for a severe tongue lashing from his mother.


	2. Punishment

Whilst Cosette gave Courfeyrac a stern talking too downstairs Jean lay on his bed feeling upset and betrayed by what had happened, he was lost in thought until he heard his door open and he looked up.  
Cosette appeared at the door to her sons room and walked inside, Jean was still angry at her so he turned his back on her, he had never done that before in his life, he had always been incredibly close to his mother so Cosette felt very hurt by this action.

Cosette sat down on the bed next to him and put a hand on his shoulder, but he shrugged it away. Cosette sighed sadly, she had never meant to hurt her boy, and she couldn't bear the thought that he was angry at her.

"I'm sorry Jean, I shouldn't have hit you" she said softly, and gently stroked his hair as well "It was wrong of me to do that, please forgive me".

Jean softened at the sound of her sweet voice and her touch; he turned to face her again and looked at her angelic face. His mother was truly a heavenly being, he had always thought so, and no matter what he thought he just couldn't stay mad at her.

"I forgive you Maman" he said to her, looking into her sad eyes.

"Thank you" she said stroking his face gently where she slapped him. "But Jean, I will not tolerate language like that in this house" she added with true conviction in her voice.

"I know Maman, I'm sorry" He said, then paused for a moment looking worried. "Are you going to tell Papa what happened?"

"I think he'll find out for himself when he sees Courfeyrac" she said. "But yes Jean, I'll have to tell him what happened, and you will take whatever punishment he sees fit to give out without complaint, and so will your brother".

"Yes Maman" he said nodding, knowing that he deserved to be punished and willing to accept it.

"I won't accept behaviour like that Jean, especially not from you" she said, welling up again. Cosette loved all her children equally, but Jean had been her first boy and so he was very special to her, she named him after her dear papa because she was sure when he was born about the kind of person he was going to be, gentle and good just like her father. To see him act the way he had today had upset her greatly. He had always been such a kind boy; she was horrified to see that side of him.

Jean sat up again; he couldn't bear to see his mother cry so he reached out to her and took her hand in his.

"Maman, don't cry, please". He said

Cosette looked at her son for a moment; he was so similar looking to Marius, except for his eyes, which were definitely hers. She remembered the day he was born, the agony of bringing him into the world and the first time she had held him. She remembered feeding him from her breast, bathing him, watching him grow up, teaching him and guiding him. She could never quite think of him as anything other than her baby boy, it was hard for her to see him acting the way he had been today.

She smiled softly at him "Whatever happened to my little boy?" she asked, and Jean just look down, feeling ashamed of himself.

"I just don't understand why you would react like that towards your brother" Cosette said "what got into you?"

Jean closed his eyes for a moment, breathing in deeply, recalling what Courfeyrac said about his sister.

"You heard what he said about Victoire," He told his mother "I won't let anyone say those things about her; it's bad enough when other children say it, but her own brother Maman? I won't allow it" He said, and then repeated it angrily "I won't!"

"Alright, calm down" Cosette said swiftly "Jean, I know you want to protect your sister, I've seen the way you are with her, you're like a second father to her"

Jean looked proudly at his mother for a moment, glad that she had noticed the way he was with his sister.

"But Jean" she continued "We both know she's different, it took me a long time to accept it, but she is. It doesn't stop me from loving her, but we can't change the way she is, and if you intend on fighting everyone who says something mean to her then you're going to have your work cut out for you indeed".

"I know" Jean simply said

"Fighting with your brother isn't going to help her" she continued, "It won't help anyone and I will not have behaviour like that in this house. I expect better from you Jean".

Jean was feeling even more ashamed of himself now; he didn't want his mother to be disappointed in him. He was her eldest son and he had always taken that responsibility seriously, but the way she looked at him now, well, he felt like he had failed her. He needed her to know why he had acted the way he did.

"Maman" he began "I know I shouldn't have hit Courfeyrac, but I won't let anyone tell Victoire she's an imbecile. I won't let anyone make her feel worthless, ever" He started crying as he continued his speech "I'm not going to stand by and let her be bullied Maman"

Cosette pulled her son towards her and held him close to her chest just like she had when he was a baby; she soothed him and stroked his hair as he cried.

"My sweet boy" she whispered to him as she comforted him "My darling boy".

"I can't watch her be hurt Maman" he said through his tears, and Cosette started crying too. She didn't want that for any of her children either.

"I know how you feel Jean, I truly do" She said tearfully as she held her boy. It was indeed a sad but beautiful moment for mother and son.

* * *

Marius returned home several hours later, the boys had made their apologies to each other and had been instructed to wait for him in the parlour by Cosette. She knew that Marius was going to give them a thrashing for this behaviour as soon as she told him, not that she approved of beating children, but it was out of her hands now. She made a vow years ago to honour her husband and that's what she was going to do, whether she approved of his actions or not.

Marius entered the house and hung up his coat, it had been a successful day at work for him so he was in a good mood. Victoire came running up to him looking lovely as usual and he smiled to see her.

"Hello papa" She said and he picked her up and kissed her face.

"Hello little one" he said "Have you had a good day?"

"Please don't hurt the boys papa!" she said abruptly, taking Marius by surprise, but before he could ask her what she meant Cosette appeared in the hallway.

"Hello darling" she said, smiling at him as he put Victoire down again, he kissed her on the cheek and she kissed him back.

"Victoire, go and play dear" she said to her daughter who went away as quickly as she had appeared

"What's going on Cosette?" Marius asked curiously. She beckoned him to follow her into his study where she told him what had happened between the two eldest boys that afternoon.

As she had expected, Marius was not happy about it at all. His two eldest sons had always had fights now and then, mostly just boyish play fighting though, but this type of behaviour was not going to be tolerated, and when he heard what Courfeyrac had said about Victoire he was just livid.

He marched out of the study and straight to the parlour where his sons were sitting and looking sheepish. He was fuming at both of them and simply said in a low tone of voice, "You two, in my study, now".

Cosette had followed Marius and stood in between him and the doorway, making one last attempt to try and persuade him not to beat the boys "Marius please, don't be too hard on them, they're sorry" she said.

Marius looked at her soft eyes, he loved his wife, and he loved his children despite the things they did sometimes, but this was something he was not going to let go unpunished. He put his hands on her shoulders and said to her "Cosette, let me handle this my way". And he simply moved her out of the way and marched his boys into his study, closing the door behind him.

Cosette watched him go, and felt tears in her eyes. She shut them for a moment in regret but opened them again when she heard a little voice call out to her.

"Maman?" Victoire said quietly, she was standing halfway in the doorway to the dining room and half out of it, as if hiding behind it.

Cosette smiled at her, not wanting her to see her with sad eyes, she reached out a hand to her little girl and Victoire came running to her. Cosette picked her up and held her, she was still quite small for an eight year old and Cosette still liked to pick her up, she dreaded the day when her littlest child would become too big for her to hold.

"I'm sorry I got the boys into trouble Maman" she said softly

Cosette stifled back more tears and took her daughter into the parlour again, "It's not your fault" she told her little girl, "You didn't do anything wrong".

* * *

The rest of the evening was a fairly sombre affair in the household, dinner passed by quietly with the girls and León trying their best to make pleasant conversation. Jean and Courfeyrac had been sent to their rooms without dinner as an added punishment. They had both received a caning from their father, Courfeyrac had been given six strokes for what he had said about Victoire, and Jean just four for fighting and the language he used. Cosette thought it was too harsh a punishment and was feeling quite cold towards her husband and she was trying to avoid having to talk to him for the rest of the evening.

Soon after the rest of the children had gone to bed Cosette announced that she was tired and she started heading upstairs when Marius pulled her back into the parlour again.

"Please don't hate me Cosette" he said to her softly "You know I can't stand it when you go cold on me like this".

Cosette felt badly for him right then, this was her own form of punishment whenever she thought he had crossed the line in some way, she would act aloof towards him.

"I don't hate you Marius" she told him "I could never hate you; I just hate what you did. It was too harsh. I can't stand the idea of a child being beaten, you know that".

"Cosette, you agreed with me that they needed to be punished" he said to her "We can't just let behaviour like that go, the things Courfeyrac said…."

"I know Marius" she said, cutting him off sharply "I don't want to hear about it again, please. I'm tired; I'm going to bed alright".

Marius just nodded at her sadly, he felt like he was in an awkward position right now. He felt like he was absolutely right in punishing the boys the way he did, but he couldn't stand Cosette being mad at him.

Cosette, deciding to rectify the situation before going to bed, stepped up to him and kissed his lips lightly before taking his face into her gentle hands.

"You know I love you" she said softly "You're a wonderful husband and a wonderful father and you know I'll always support every decision you make for this family don't you?"

Marius nodded and she continued

"But it doesn't mean I always have to like it Marius" she told him, and kissed him gently again. "Come to bed soon, please?" she said smiling softly at him.

He returned her lovely smile and gave her one last kiss before she left "I'll be up soon love, I promise".

* * *

Whilst Cosette was making her peace with Marius that night, Jean was lying in his bed thinking things over when he heard his door open softly, he had an oil lamp lit in his room and could make out little Victoire standing in the doorway.

"Vic? What are you doing? Why aren't you in bed?" He said to her curiously

Victoire wasn't sure if her brother was mad at her for getting him punished that day, so she just stood there for a moment chewing her lip nervously.

Jean smiled at her and she seemed to relax a bit, He patted the mattress next to him and pulled his blanket back, "Come here petit" he said to her and she ran to his side and jumped onto the bed next to him and crawled under the covers. Jean was quite glad she had come to him that night, he hadn't seen her all evening and he had missed her a little bit, even though it had only been a few hours without her.

"Comfy?" he asked as she settled in next to him.

"Mmm hmm" she said sweetly, and he tapped her nose playfully and she giggled adorably at him

After a moment of silence between them, Victoire spoke.

"I'm sorry I got you punished Jean" she said softly to him

"You didn't get me punished petit" Jean informed her "You didn't do anything wrong, I did".

"Are you sore?" she asked him, concerned about the caning he had received from papa, in her eight years she had never once been beaten by her papa, mostly because she was the baby of the family, but also because she was a girl, and she was too simple to understand if she had done something wrong anyway that Marius didn't ever have the heart to punish her.

Actually Jeans backside was hurting a little from the caning he'd received, unlike Courfeyrac who had cried out as he was being beaten Jean took his punishment like a man and hadn't made a sound, but it was still agony. However he didn't want to make Victoire feel bad so he lied to her.

"No Petit, I'm not sore at all, it didn't even hurt" He told her convincingly, although Victoire was so trusting of him she believed everything he had ever told her.

"Do you hate papa for beating you?" She asked him innocently

"No of course not" he said, slightly alarmed, "He's our papa and he loves all of us, I could never hate him".

"Do you hate Courfeyrac?" she asked

"I don't hate anyone Petit" he said, starting to get slightly impatient at all the questions she was asking.

"But you said you hated him this afternoon, then you called him a bas…."

"Vic, shush! Please!" he said suddenly. He cut her off before she could finish that sentence; she had a bad habit of repeating words that she didn't understand sometimes, even when they were bad words.

"Sometimes when people are angry they say things they don't really mean" He said, "I don't hate Courfeyrac I swear. Now close your eyes and go to sleep".

Victoire did as her brother told her and closed her eyes, tucked up nice and safe and warm next to him. She sighed softly and then whispered to him. "I love you Jean".

"I love you Petit" he whispered back, and then tapped her gently on the nose again.

**The End**


End file.
